Rachael Davis sits down with Ke Huy Quan to talk about his first leading role in martial arts movie Love Hurts.
Ke Huy Quan has had quite the rollercoaster film career.
His first film role, as Short Round in Indiana Jones And The Temple of Doom some four decades ago, was succeeded by a 20-year acting sabbatical, and then his return to acting was marked by winning a Golden Globe, a Screen Actors Guild Award and an Academy Award for his role in Everything Everywhere All At Once.
Now, 40 years after he first appeared on screen, the 53-year-old Vietnam-born actor is making his debut as a leading man, top of the call sheet for action-packed martial arts film Love Hurts.
Quan, by his own admission, doesn’t look like an action hero at first glance, and despite his protestations that his character Marvin Gable should be played by the likes of Jason Statham, Quan was exactly what Love Hurts’ director Jonathan Eusebio and producer David Leitch were looking for.
“(They) wanted to create a different kind of action hero…” says Quan, who is joined by West Side Story star Ariana DeBose and The Lord Of The Rings and Stranger Things’ actor Sean Astin in the energetic action-comedy about a realtor with a dangerous history as a hitman.
“He doesn’t look threatening in the beginning, he’s only a badass when the situation calls for it.
“And also, (he’s) an action hero that is not afraid to get emotional, to share his feelings. That was really exciting to me.
“And, of course, getting this opportunity to play Marvin Gable, my first time ever as a leading man, was amazing.”
While being led by a character who wears his heart on his sleeve, and possessing an aesthetic that’s littered with Valentine’s Day-appropriate iconography, Love Hurts is a visceral and high-octane thrill ride of a martial arts movie.
Set in the Milwaukee suburbs, the story follows Quan’s Marvin Gable as he markets massive suburban homes, clearly finding great joy in getting people onto or up the property ladder.
But this unassuming realtor is hiding a very dark past, and when a former partner-in-crime that he had left for dead reappears, he’s thrust back into a world of terrifying hitmen and untold violence as his crime-lord brother hunts him down.
“From the very beginning, we knew what kind of action we wanted to make, which was an homage to Hong Kong’s Eighties action movies,” Quan says.
“You know, those movies from Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung, Yuen Biao…
“They did all those fights themselves back then. So coming into this, I told our director Jonathan Eusebio and our action team, I said: ‘I want to do all the fights myself’. But that was a big statement, because, you know, I’m not 21!”
Quan trained for three months to get in shape for the incredible fight choreography, although his background in martial arts, and the time he spent immersed in the craft of action film-making during his decades on acting hiatus, were certainly of help.
In fact, he says that being unable to find an opportunity to practise his martial arts skills in movies was a major factor in his decision to step away from acting, so the way in which Love Hurts brings acting, action, and martial arts together was something of a dream come true.
“When I was a little kid, I studied martial arts for a long time – I got my black belt – so it was a lot of muscle memory, but also getting my body ready to do all those very demanding choreography,” he explains.
“And let me tell you, it was exhausting, it was fun, (but) halfway through the movie, I was so tired, and I had bruises all over my body, I was in pain, and I said to my wife: ‘You know what, I think I don’t want to do this anymore. This will be the last action movie’.
“Of course, when I saw the movie, I was so happy and I was so proud, and now I can’t wait to do another one!”
It was during Quan’s Oscar campaign that director Jonathan Eusebio recognised how perfectly he’d fit the role of Marvin Gable, noticing that he not only shared a skillset with the character, but also elements of his personality.
While Quan says, quite rightly, that “it’s kind of hard to relate to someone who’s killed a lot of people”, he adds that what he did relate to was Marvin’s yearning for a second chance in life.
“Here is a guy who understands what he has done in the past, the horrible stuff he’s done, and he’s trying to redeem himself, and he’s looking for a second chance – he’s looking for another chance to be a better man,” he says.
“Now, I understand second chance. Me sitting here, talking to you, and being in this movie, has been incredible because I stepped away from acting, and here I am acting again. So that part I can relate (to).”
Far from simply being a hard-hitting goon, the character brings tenderness, humanity, and charm to the story of Love Hurts, as well as a sentimentality for helping people find the perfect home which Quan equates to how he hopes his movies make people feel.
“The part about Marvin Gable wanting to make people’s dreams of owning a home come true – that’s so, so beautiful, you know?” says the star.
“Being an actor, when we make movies, we don’t want anything but just to, hopefully, entertain you for 90 minutes, and hopefully you forget about your troubles for that time and come out feeling a little bit refreshed.”
Love Hurts comes to cinemas on Friday, February 7.
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